Title:
Development of watershed management strategies for the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Development of watershed management strategies for the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Authors
Baughman, Doug
Dyke, Heather
Dyke, Heather
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Abstract
The Metropolitan North Georgia Water
Planning District (District), created in 2001, is required
to develop a District-wide watershed management plan
to address the need for comprehensive stormwater and
watershed management in the rapidly developing North
Georgia area. A total of 16 counties in the metropolitan
Atlanta area are included in the District encompassing
over 6,700 square miles. There are six major river
basins within the District including the Coosa/Etowah,
Chattahoochee, Oconee, Ocumulgee, Flint, and
Tallapoosa river basins. Specifically the watershed
management plan must provide recommendations for
programmatic measures that should be applied across
the entire as well as watershed specific measures to
address existing or anticipated watershed conditions. In
addition, the watershed management plan must be
coordinated with the water supply and wastewater
management plans being developed concurrently.
Development of the comprehensive watershed
management plan focused on leveraging existing
programs, where appropriate, and identification of
additional management measures required to maintain
or improve water quality and aquatic habitat conditions.
The overall goal was to develop a long-term program
that met multiple objectives including meeting water
quality standards, TMDL implementation, source water
protection, and reduction in downstream flooding. To
meet these goals, a change in overall philosophy was
required from the traditional stormwater end of the pipe
engineering approach to one that eliminates the causes
by proactively preventing stormwater problems before
they occur. Greater emphasis on site planning and
design to better mimic the natural hydrologic regime
will be needed to reduce downstream hydrologic
impacts and associated non-point source pollutant
loads. In addition, significant watershed restoration
activities will be needed in the already developed areas
to improve stream conditions to meet designed uses.
This proactive watershed management approach will
require a greater coordination at the regional level to
ensure consistency in and implementation of local
watershed management programs.
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Date Issued
2003-04
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Text
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Proceedings